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Clock Tower 3
Clock Tower 3 (Japanese: クロックタワー3 Hepburn: Kurokku Tawā 3?) is a 2002 survival horror video game for the PlayStation 2 co-developed by Capcom Production Studio 3 and Sunsoft, and published by Capcom. The game is the fourth installment in the Clock Tower series, and was released in Japan on December 12, 2002, in North America on March 18, 2003 and in Europe on June 25, 2003. It is the first game in the series to incorporate direct control over the protagonist, as opposed to the point-and-click adventure gameplay used in the previous games. Clock Tower 3 is also the first game in the series not to feature multiple endings. In terms of the plot and characters, as with Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within, Clock Tower 3 has very little to do with the original Clock Tower games. It is the first and only video game directed by renowned film director Kinji Fukasaku. It received mixed reviews upon release. ''Gameplay'' Players assume the role of fourteen-year-old school girl Alyssa Hamilton. Progress through the game focuses on finding items to unlock new areas, solving puzzles, and fleeing and hiding from enemies ("Subordinates"). Eventually, each Subordinate must be defeated in battle. Throughout each level, the player also encounters the spirits of innocent people slain by the Subordinates. These spirits will attack Alyssa if she approaches them. In order to pacify them, an item of sentimental value must be found and returned to the spirit's corpse. Alyssa is given no weaponry during the majority of the game other than a limited supply of holy water, which can be used to temporarily stun pursuing Subordinates. Within each level, the Subordinate can appear after a set period of time, if Alyssa makes noise, or in certain set locations. When the Subordinate appears, it immediately begins to chase Alyssa, attempting to kill her. It is at this point the player must hide from or evade the Subordinate. Evasion can only be accomplished in certain places, and each evasion point can only be used once. Using an evasion point does not kill the Subordinate, but instead renders them unconscious for a set time. The primary means of eluding the Subordinate, however, is by hiding. There are multiple hiding points throughout each level, and each one can be used multiple times. However, hiding places are ineffective if the Subordinate sees Alyssa enter them. Throughout most of the game, Alyssa has a "Panic Meter" visible on screen. If she is scared by a Subordinate, attacked by a spirit or simply frightened by her surroundings, the meter will begin to rise. If it fills, she enters "Panic mode". In this state, the screen starts flashing, Alyssa becomes difficult to control, stumbling and falling over, she is unable to use holy water, and she cannot enter hiding spots. After a few seconds, she will momentarily freeze, covering her ears. Panic mode only lasts for a certain amount of time, and its duration can be reduced by using "Lavender water". However, if she is hit by a Subordinate whilst in Panic Mode, she will die instantly. After the majority of each level has played out, Alyssa must confront the Subordinate who has been chasing her. At this point, her holy water bottle transforms into a longbow, allowing her to fight back. Each battle is confined to a single area, and both Alyssa and the Subordinate have onscreen life bars. During the fight, Alyssa must dodge attacks while firing arrows. In order to inflict considerable damage, she must power-up her attacks. However, while powering-up, Alyssa cannot move or re-adjust her aim, leaving her vulnerable to attacks and making it possible for her enemy to move out of her line of sight. A fully powered-up shot will tether the Subordinate to the ground. If the Subordinate is transfixed with multiple powered-up shots, Alyssa can perform a highly damaging "Super attack" with her next shot, killing or severely wounding the Subordinate. ''Plot'' The game is set in London in 2003. Alyssa Hamilton (アリッサ･ハミルトン Arissa Hamiruton?) is a fourteen-year-old girl who has been living at a boarding school for three years. Her mother, Nancy Hamilton (ナンシー･ハミルトン Nanshī Hamiruton?), sent her there after her grandfather, Dick Hamilton (ディック･ハミルトン Dikku Hamiruton?), disappeared, telling her not to return home for at least six years. The game begins with Alyssa receiving a letter from her mother in which she tells her to go into hiding until after her fifteeneth birthday has passed. Alarmed, Alyssa decides to go against her mother's wishes and return home. However, when she arrives at the boarding house in which they live, her mother is absent, and the only person there is The Dark Gentleman (闇の紳士 Yami no shinshi?). He tells her that he is a lodger, and that her mother has gone out and won't be returning. Though frightened, Alyssa determines to find her mother. She explores the house and finds a hidden note from Nancy, accompanying a vial of holy water. Nancy predicted that Alyssa would return and has left the holy water to help her. Her search through the house leads her to Nancy's room, where Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu suddenly begins to play from nowhere. Terrified, Alyssa runs from the room and is transported back in time, to the city streets during World War II. She begins to explore, eventually finding a tailor shop, where she witnesses the brutal murder of a young girl by a man wielding a sledgehammer. Eventually, Alyssa is able to piece together what happened: May Norton (メイ･ノートン Mei Nōton?) was brutally killed on Christmas Eve 1942 by the apparently deceased murderer Robert Morris (known in the Japanese version as Richard Morris (リチャード･モーリス Richādo Mōrisu?), aka Sledgehammer (ハンマー男 Hanmā otoko?), a stonecutter who went on a killing spree before being caught and executed. While still exploring the shop, Alyssa witnesses an event from prior to May's death; her father, William Norton (ウィリアム･ノートン Wiriamu Nōton?), telling her he must go to war, at which point she gives him a pocket watch as a reminder of his dead wife and herself. While in battle, however, William is killed. Alyssa comes to realise that she must free May's spirit, which is trapped on earth, by giving her the pocket watch. On her way to do so, she is confronted by Sledgehammer, whom she destroys. She then gives the pocket watch to May's spirit. May is then reunited with William, and the two thank Alyssa as they ascend to Heaven. At that moment, Alyssa faints. She wakes up in her bedroom, speculating that what she experienced may have been a dream. Meanwhile, her childhood friend, Dennis Owen (デニス･オーウェン Denisu Ōuen?) arrives at the house. He has the key to Dick's room, which Nancy gave him the previous day as she left the house. While searching the room, Alyssa learns that the girls in her lineage are known as "Rooders", young women with supernatural powers. Rooders are the sworn enemies of "Entities", beings which can infect innocent humans and drive them to acts of murder. However, killing the human possessed by the Entity (known as a "Subordinate") doesn't kill the Entity. Instead, the agony of the souls of the murderer's victims feeds the Entity and allows it to remain in possession of the human, even after death, thus granting the human immortality. The Rooders work to destroy Entities wherever they encounter them. Rooder powers peak at the age of fifteen, and wane afterward, disappearing completely by the age of twenty. Meanwhile, Alyssa again travels back in time, this time to the 1960s. She enters the house of a blind elderly woman, Dorothy Rand (ドロシー･ランド Doroshī Rando?), and her son, Albert Rand (アルバート･ランド Arubāto Rando?), moments before they are brutally murdered by a man who throws them into a vat of acid. During the struggle, a shawl that Albert had made for his mother falls into a sewer. The murderer, known as Corroder (硫酸男 Ryūsan otoko?), was staying with the Rands at the time of the killings. His real name was John Haigh (ジョン・ヘイグ Jon Heigu?), and he claimed to be Albert's cousin. Alyssa finds the shawl in the sewers, destroys Corroder, and returns the shawl to Dorothy's spirit, freeing both herself and Albert. She then returns to the present, where The Dark Gentleman congratulates her on killing two Subordinates. He then sends her to the top of a massive clock tower where he tells her that when her fifteenth birthday arrives they will be united for all eternity. He also tells her that her mother is dead. When she refuses to believe him, he flings her from the tower. Regaining consciousness in a sewer system, she is forced to confront another Subordinate, Chopper (斧男 Ono otoko?). After temporarily escaping from him, Alyssa again sees an incident from the past; shortly after she was born. Hearing a scream from outside, she runs to find her father, Philip (フィリップ Firippu?), struggling with her grandfather on the balcony. Dick pushes Philip off the balcony onto an axe head, killing him, but Alyssa refuses to believe her grandfather meant to kill him. She is then attacked by Chopper. She defeats him, but fails to kill him and is sent to a graveyard. There, she learns that her mother has been killed in a car accident, and subsequently meets the spirits of Rooders who have lost battles against the Subordinates, and whose souls have become trapped. She learns that Chopper was a woodcutter called Harold Powell (known in Japanese version as Harvey Powell (ハーベイ･パウエル Hābei Paueru?), who was deformed at birth and as a result, was taunted. When Powell was seventeen, he proposed to the innkeeper's daughter, but was rejected. In turn, he dismembered her with his axe and continued to murder other women in the same fashion for two years until he was caught and killed. Alyssa then learns of the "Ritual of Engagement"; if a human wishes to become an Entity, they must remove the heart of a Rooder on her fifteenth birthday, and drink her blood. Eventually, Alyssa fights Chopper again and is able to destroy him, freeing the trapped Rooders. Dennis arrives, and he and Alyssa find their way to an abandoned hospital where they encounter Scissorman (Ralf) (シザーマン Shizāman?) and Scissorwoman (シザーウーマン Shizāūman?), who kidnap Dennis. Alyssa is then transported to a castle, where she encounters Dick reciting a strange incantation. She learns that Dick knew of the Ritual of Engagement, and had discovered the "Legend of Lord Burroughs". Determined to learn more, he set out looking for information three years ago. As Alyssa explores the castle, she learns it once belonged to Lord Darcy Burroughs (ダン･D･バロウズ Dan D. Barouzu?), who had married into the Hamilton family. He too had learned of the Ritual of Engagement and was planning on performing it on his daughter. However, the night before her fifteenth birthday, she died in an accident. Burroughs became enraged, and began to kill his staff, the villagers and even his wife. He was eventually crushed in the gears of the clock tower whilst fleeing from a mob of villagers. Alyssa also learns that Dick had proved successful in finding Burroughs' castle and discovered that he was directly descended from Burroughs. Alyssa also learns the true nature of the twins; Jemima (known in Japanese version as Janice (ジャニス Janisu?) and Ralph (known in Japanese version as Rudy (ルディ Rudi?)), who were hired by Burroughs to carry out murders for him. She then sees an incident from the past; Dick approaches a portrait of Burroughs reciting the incantation. He asks for Burroughs to help him become an Entity, inviting Burrough to enter his body and for them to complete the Ritual together. Burroughs' spirit takes possession of Dick, turning into The Dark Gentleman. Meanwhile, Alyssa is able to rescue Dennis from the twins, killing them in the process. The Dark Gentleman then tells Alyssa that if she wants to save Nancy, she must come to the top of the tower. She makes Dennis wait behind and heads to the summit. There, The Dark Gentlemen turns into Dick. Alyssa begs him to return her mother, but Dick points to a nearby statue, telling her that Nancy betrayed him and had to be punished. Alyssa says she will destroy him, and he turns into Lord Burroughs. He destroys the statue and begins The Ritual of Engagement. However, Dennis then arrives and distracts Burroughs, allowing Alyssa to fight back. Nancy's spirit transfers what is left of her own Rooder power into Alyssa, giving her the strength to destroy Burroughs. After she defeats him, she reunites with her mother's spirit. The tower then collapses. Alyssa awakens in a field, where she sees Dennis. She runs to him and hugs him as she says "Mom...we did it. We did it, Mom." ''Information'' *''Clock Tower 3 first was released in Japan on December 12, 2002 '' *''All the subordinates have changed names in the Japanese version''